Greens News
Weekly Report 01:09:08
This week we have raised the hieght of cut on the greens and will be verti-draining them. There are signs of disease on a lot of the greens so we will be spraying a fungicide if the weather allows.
Greens committee and members meeting will be held in the clubhouse on the
23rd September at 7:00p.m for 7:.30p.m..
Weekly Report 25:08:08
This week we will be cutting the greens in the afternoon for the club championship. New hole positions will also be cut on these days. On Friday we started spraying fairways and tees for wormcasts,this work will be ongoing throughout the Autumn. If the weather is suitable this week we intend to spray a liquid cocktail on the greens.
Weekly Report 18:08:08
This week we will be preparing the course for the Seniors Open and Club Championship. The course has started to change due to the weather conditions lately and as a result worm casts are now appearing on the fairways and tees. We have some chemical left in stock and can begin to spray the casts but to do this we need a calm dry day. The walk on and off areas to tees are starting to become muddy so we would like to ask members to use alternative routes were possible.
Weekly Report 11:08:08
This week we will be cutting and getting the course ready for the Invitational.We have noticed a new disease on the chipping area called "Take All Patch" this is a disease that attacks new turf. It is a slow process to eliminate this disease, however our agronomist has assured us we have noticed it at it's early stages and by using a fungicide and altering the soil ph. we should succeed in stopping it.
Weekly Report 04:08:08
This morning the greens will be sprayed for disease, then they will recieve a feed. The tees will also be fed today or tommorow. All bunkers will be topped up with sand and edged this week. All paths will be weedkilled and topped up with ash. Our hedge trimmer is now fixed so both hedges at the clubhouse will be cut this week.
Weekly Report 28:07:08
This week we will be feeding the greens and tees. We will continue working on bunkers as we have new sand to put in them. The soil was delivered on Friday to put round the base of the new trees, this work will begin this week.
Weekly Report 21:07:08
This morning (Monday) we will be verti-cutting greens and cutting them.
If the weather is suitable we will be putting seaweed on the greens later
in the week.
Over the past few weeks no work was done to the greens because they were overseeded. We had to give the seed a chance to root before we start to work on the putting surface. The seed has now rooted a we will now begin to get the putting surface back in order.
We also started grubbing and moving sand in bunkers this morning (Monday).
Weekly Report 14:07:08
Finished scraifying the tees this morning (Monday) as we could not finish this last week due to the weather and time. Depending on the weather this week we plan to put liquid seaweed on the greens, apart from that the rest of the week will be taken up with the cutting.
Weekly Report 07:07:08
Put a feed on the greens this morning (Monday) as we could not do this last week due to the weather. We plan to do some work to the tees this week. We will be scarifying,sanding and seeding them.
Weekly Report 30:06:08
This week we will be working on the greens. The last feed the greens recieved is starting to wear off now and the different grasses are growing at different speeds. This makes the putting surface uneven so we will verti-cut, feed and topdress this week.
Weekly Report 23:06:08
The greens will recieve another application of seaweed this week and a light top dressing. We hope to finish spraying the base of all trees with weedkiller. The tees will be fed tomorrow. The irrigation to the tees has now been sorted in-house so we are now ready to start work on them and try and improve their condition.
Weekly Report 16:06:08
This week we will be pencil tining the greens to allow air and water down to the roots this should help to soften the greens. Renovation work has now started on the tees most of the pop-ups are now working correctly with only two sets left to fix. The tees will recieve a feed this week.
Last week we erected the new driving nets behind the chipping area.
These have still to be lowered and cemented into the ground.
The shoe cleaner has now been moved behind the 18th green.
It has still to have a timber frame put round the edge and
more
sand brushed into the astro turf.
The new smoking shelter has now been finished. It had to be
moved to the other side of the building because of
health and safety reasons.
Weekly Report 09:06:08
This week we hope to apply liquid iron, wetting agent and activate to the greens. Last week we rolled the greens using a set of sarrell rollers which we had on demonstration. These rollers have small spikes on them which help the water get to the root of the plant. The greens will be verti-cut this week. We hope to have the driving nets assembled this week.
Weekly Report 02:06:08
This week we are moving the shoe cleaner to the back of the 18th green and building a new astro turf base for it. All the materials for the practice nets are here and we had intended to start them last weekend but due to the course being so busy it was decided the work should be done during the week. The seaweed and wetting agent that was applied to the greens last week has now started to work. This week we will put down another top dressing to help the greens roll smoother and faster. Greenstaff will be working late on the course this week to complete the strimming and weedkilling round the base of all trees.
Weekly Report 26:05:08
This week we will be pencil tining the greens to break the surface and help the water get down to the roots. This should also help to soften the surface. We will be applying some liquid seaweed to the greens tomorrow. The rest of the week we will be cutting. Work on the practice nets will begin this weekend .
Weekly Report 19:05:08
This week we will be spraying and strimming around the base of trees.
We also have soil to level the base of all newly planted trees. Over the
past few weeks members will have noticed the greens being very uneven,
this is due to different species of grass growing at different speeds.
Now that we have got steady and constant growth we will be taking the
hieght of cut down to summer hieght so there should be a noticeable difference
in the greens over the next few days. Again for the rest of the week we
will be cutting.
Weekly Report 12:05:08
This week we will be working on the greens. We will be feeding and topdressing them and putting down a wetting agent. For the rest of the week we will be cutting.
Weekly Report 05:05:08
We have a new member of staff this week. Scott Turnbull is our new first year apprentice.
Members have probably noticed that the grass is now growing so we will be cutting most days now. The greens however are still not growing as much as we would like this is due to temp during the night.
We hope to finish the base for the practice nets this week.
Weekly Report 28:04:08
This week we will be lowering the hieghts of cut on greens tees and fairways. Today we will be topdressing the greens. This will be followed by an application of wetting agent on tuesday or wednesday. The new practice nets will be delivered this week so hopefully it won't be long till they are in use.
Weekly Report 21:04:08
We are almost finished installing the new drain at the 9th. For the rest of the week we will be planting trees and building a base for the arrival of the new practice nets. We also plan to give the greens another top dressing this week.
Weekly Report 14:04:08
We have hired a digger this week to investigate and sort the wet area around the 9th medal tee.
We are also hoping to use the machine to dig a base for the new driving nets and plant some new trees to replace ones that were damaged during the winter.
Our agronomist is due to visit today to put a programme into place for the greens this year.
We have a problem with Black Layer on our greens which you can read about here....
Weekly Report 07:04:08
This week we will be edging bunkers and cutting. This will keep us busy all week. Holes 15 and 16 are now open. Practice nets have now been ordered for the chipping area.
RGC Greenstaff
New Machinery
The club have recently traded-in a utility mower & purchased a new fairway mower. This machine will allow us to cut the fairways in a single day using only one member of staff. This is a significant labour saving & should allow time to be devoted to other course maintenance tasks.
Ralston GC purchased it's first John Deere machine about 7 years ago. Since that time we have become a valued customer and built up a good relationship with Nairn Brown,our local John Deere dealers. Our fleet of machines is constantly improving with up to date John Deere models being brought in on a rolling programme. The council and greenstaff here at Ralston GC hope to improve the course over the coming years with the continued training of staff and utilisation of modern greenkeping equiptment.
John Deere 3235C
The John Deere 3235C in the picture above is the new fairway mower. It is set to cut the fairways at 13 mm. There are 5 cutting units which are all fitted with rear roller brushes, these help to disperse grass clippings which allow us to cut during wet or damp conditions with minimal mess.
In the past the fairways were cut using three smaller triplex mowers that took three men one full day to cut all the fairways.
The new machine is a lot more powerful which means the fairways can now be cut in one full working day by one person.
Ralston greenstaff with some of our Machinery
The two machines on the outside of the picture above are called John Deere 2653A's. They previously were used for cutting fairways and first cut. Now with the purchase of the new fairway mower these will only be used for cutting tee bankings and first cut.
Augusta eat your heart out
Greens staff also have three 220B hand mowers.These are used for hand cutting greens and are fitted with groomers to help stand the grass up before cutting. These machines give a better quality of cut.
RGC Greenstaff